English 101 Composition Fall 2012

MWF 9:00 Military Science Building, Room 107 Class # 22980 MWF 10:00 Military Science Building, Room 107 Class # 21855
Instructor: E-mail: Office: Office Hours: Contact Information Alex Zimmer alexzimm@ku.edu 3106 Wescoe 11:00-12:00 MWF, and by appointment Course Description Course Goals: English 101, Composition, is designed to increase your range of writing abilities and to give you more conscious knowledge and control of the writing choices you can make. Although you already know how to write, we will work to understand writing better so that you can make more knowledgeable choices when you write. You will also practice a method for learning how to write in new situations. Based on national standards, the writing program at KU has established a set of objectives for students in English 101 (elaborated in the Composition and Literature pamphlet). By the end of English 101, you should be able to: Develop your own rhetorical flexibility within and beyond academic writing tasks Analyze how language and rhetorical choices vary across texts and different institutional, historical, or public contexts; Revise to improve your own writing; The approach we are taking in this class focuses on the kinds of writing, called genres, that people do in different settings for different purposes. Genres include everyday kinds of writing like blogs, horoscopes, and job application forms as well as academic genres and the literary genres people usually think of when they think of genres. You will develop your rhetorical flexibility through writing consciously in a variety of genres, including but not limited to academic genres. You will learn how to analyze any kind of writing that you want (or are required) to read or write, to see the patterns of those genres, and to understand how their institutional, historical, and public contexts influence the ways they work and the ways individual writers make choices. Then you can write these genres with greater understanding and effectiveness, including revising your drafts with more conscious awareness and deliberate choice. Becoming more consciously aware of genres can also help you make deliberate choices about how much to follow the expectations of a genre and how you might change a genre to serve your own purposes or those of other groups. Required Materials: You will need to have all of these materials by the second day of class.

Devitt, Amy, Mary Jo Reiff, and Anis Bawarshi. Scenes of Writing: Strategies for Composing with Genres. New York: Longman 2003. Faigley, Lester. The Brief Penguin Handbook. 4th ed. New York: Pearson, 2012. Department of English. Composition & Literature. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 2012.

Written Work You should expect to be writing constantly in this class. In addition to the three formal papers and final project listed on the schedule of assignments, you will be writing in-class brief writings, a journal, group writings, and homework assignments. Writing Projects: You will write four formal projects in this course in addition to daily informal writing. Each project will build on skills and understandings you have gained in previous assignments. Writing Project #1 Literacy Autobiography Essaylocate your own writing practices within multiple contextual/institutional/personal/cultural influences and try writing a literary essay Writing Project #2 Academic Genre Analysis Paperlocate texts and genres within varied contextual/cultural influences and practice writing an academic analysis paper Writing Project #3 Joining a Conversationlocate an issue within a context/culture and practice choosing and using a genre in response Writing Project #4 Revision of #1 or #2, with supporting materialsdemonstrate how your writing and understanding of your writing have developed and try strategies for revising your style Details on all these projects will be provided as the semester progresses. Other Writings and Class Activities: As we work toward each of the major projects, you will read, write, and talk your way through a series of daily assignments designed to help you succeed in the major projects and achieve other course goals. During class time, you might be experimenting with a new writing task in your journal, commenting on or applying some topic from the day's assigned reading, responding to other students' writing, conferring with me, or working in teams to achieve smaller goals. Out-of-class work will range widely as well, from making lists in preparation for a project to writing summaries of readings, from completing a paper draft to reviewing someone elses draft posted on Blackboard. These writings and activities will be graded with credit for having completed them successfully (checkmarks), rather than with letter grades. Your grade on Other Writings and Class Activities will reflect the percentage of these assignments successfully completed. See the percentage scale below to translate the percentage you completed successfully (for example, 85% of activities successfully completed) into a letter grade (85% = B on Other Writings and Class Activities portion of final grade).

Grading:

Your final grade for the course will be based on the following weightings for your graded work. Project #1 Project #2 Project #3 Project #4 Journal, Other Writings and Class Activities 20% 20% 20% 20% 20%

I will grade using a +/- letter grading system, both on individual projects and your final grade. To calculate your final grade, your letter grades will translate into numbers according to the following scale: A+ = 98.5 A = 95 A- = 91.5 B+ = 88.5 B = 85 B- = 81.5 C += 78.5 C = 75 C- = 71.5 D+ = 68.5 D = 65 D- = 61.5 F+ = 58.5 F = 55 Policies and Expectations Late Work: It is important to complete the assigned work on time in order to gain the fullest benefits from doing the work, especially true for the daily work that helps you prepare or make use of material for each class period. Unless we have made arrangements in advance, I will grade down a late writing project by onethird of a grade for each business day it is late (for example, a project earning a B will become a B- if one day late, a C+ if two days late, and so on). According to Department of English policy, you must turn in all four major projects to pass the course, even if a project is so late that it will have earned an F. I will not accept late or give make-up work for other writings and class activities (excepting religious holidays and university-sanctioned events, of course). Check your schedule for potential conflicts well ahead of due dates, and speak with me ahead of time if you will have trouble meeting a deadline. Attendance: Come to class! Homework and in-class activities account for 20% of your final grade. The easiest way to make your grade drop is by missing in-class assignments and being absent. What we do in class is important for meeting the goals listed above, and most of our class sessions will depend on your participation in some activities. Therefore, good attendance is expected. To attend a class well means not only being physically present but also being prepared--having read the assignment well enough to be able to talk about it and having completed any preparatory writing assignments--and participating in whatever activity class entails. Missing five (5) days of class will lower your grade by half of one letter grade, and any subsequent absences will lower your grade by another half letter grade for each absence. Of course, speak with me if you have a medical or other crisis that will make you miss several classes. Conferences:

The scheduled conferences are mandatory. Failure to schedule and/or show up will be detrimental to the final grades of your papers.
Disabilities: The Academic Achievement & Access Center (AAAC) coordinates accommodations and services for all KU students who are eligible. If you have a disability for which you wish to request accommodations and have not contacted the AAAC, please do so as soon as possible. Their office is located in 22 Strong Hall; their phone number is 785-864-4064 (V/TTY). Information about their services can be found at http://disability.ku.edu. Please contact me privately in regard to your needs in this course. Academic Honesty: Intellectual property and integrity are important values for the university community, so cheating in any form, including plagiarism, will not be tolerated. Any time a writer uses someone else's idea, words, or work without explicitly citing the source, the writer has been academically dishonest. Some specific examples of actions that constitute plagiarism include pasting together uncredited information or ideas from the Internet or published sources, submitting an entire paper written by someone else, submitting a paper written for another class (and thus not original work), and copying another students work (even with the students permission). In order to avoid unintentional plagiarism and to represent your work honestly, you will need to be meticulous about giving credit to any and all sources, whether directly quoted (even a few words) or paraphrased. Please study the University's description of and rules concerning academic dishonesty in the Student Handbook as well as the English Department's description in Composition & Literature. All incidents of plagiarism will be penalized, reported, and kept on file in the English Department, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the University Provosts Office. Policy on Student Academic Creations: Since one of the aims of this course is to teach students to write for specific audiences, ungraded studentauthored work will be shared with other class members during the semester in which you are enrolled in the class. Please do not submit materials on sensitive subjects that you would not want your classmates to see or read, unless you inform the instructor in advance that you do not want your work shared with others. Peer Civility: Because much of our course work requires discussion, peer review, and feedback, everyone is expected to be courteous and polite when discussing others' work. It is ok to critique! It is a necessary part of the review process, however it is completely inappropriate to be rude about it if you disagree.

Other Policies: Be sure to read Composition & Literature thoroughly for all other Departmental policies.

Writing Center: For help with your writing, I strongly encourage you to contact the KU Writing Center. At the Writing Center you can talk about your writing with trained tutors or consult reference materials in a comfortable working environment. You may ask for feedback on your papers, advice and tips on writing (for all your courses), or for guidance on special writing tasks. Please check the website at <http://www.writing.ku.edu/students/> for current locations and hours. The Writing Center welcomes both drop-ins and appointments, and there is no charge for their services. For more information, please call (785) 864-2399 or send an e-mail to <writing@ku.edu>. The website is loaded with helpful information about writing of all sorts.

Schedule of Goals and Major Assignments This schedule is partial and tentative. Since I want to adjust the course as I discover your abilities and goals, I reserve the right to change this schedule with oral notice in class. If you anticipate a problem with due dates, please speak with me. Page numbers refer to Scenes of Writing unless otherwise specified. Homework and in-class activities will be added and will be announced in class. NOTE: Every assignment and reading assigned for a class date is to be completed BEFORE you come to class that day. Unit #1 Understanding Writing Practices in Contexts M Aug 20 Introduction to Course Read Syllabus and Schedule Write writing sample (written in class) W Aug 22 Introducing Scene, Situation, and Genre Read 3-14, 21-25 Write in journal response to Writing Activities 1.1 and 1.2 F Aug 24 Writing Processes in Scenes, Situations, Genres Read 99-105; and on Blackboard George Orwell, Why I Write Write in journal response to Writing Activity 3.1 Write in journal a one-page description of why you write M Aug 27 Literacy Autobiographies Reread George Orwell, Why I Write and Eula Biss, Three Songs of Salvage Read on Bb Gloria Anzaldua, How to Tame a Wild Tongue Read Sylvia, Anne DiPardo, pages 201-208 Write in journal response to question, Which three are literary essays? What makes them similar to each other and different from the other one? W Aug 29 Finding a Theme and Choosing Details for Your Literacy Autobiography Write in journal [add your assignment here] F Aug 31 Conferences and Drafting Literacy Autobiography (meet individually, no class meetings)

M Sept 3 Labor DayNo classes W Sept 5 F Sept 7 Conferences and Drafting Literacy Autobiography (meet individually, no class meetings) Conferences and Drafting Literacy Autobiography (meet individually, no class meetings)

M Sept 10 Writers Workshop Bring 3 copies of complete draft of your literacy autobiography W Sept 12 Revising Literacy Autobiographies Bring current version of your literacy autobiography, responses from workshop, and assignment sheet F Sept 14 Reflecting on Writing in Contexts Bring journal and final version of your literacy autobiography Literacy Autobiography Due Unit #2 Analyzing Differences across Texts DAILY SCHEDULE TBA M Sept 17 W Sept 19 F Sept 21 M Sept 24 W Sept 26 F Sept 28 M Oct 1 W Oct 3 F Oct 5 M Oct 8 W Oct 10 F Oct 12 Fall Break, No Class Writers Workshop

M Oct 15 W Oct 17 Reflecting on Analyzing Texts in Contexts Bring journal, final version of academic genre analysis paper, and copies of texts analyzed Academic Genre Analysis Paper due Unit #3 Joining a Conversation W Oct 19 M Nov. 7 Daily Schedule TBA

M Nov 12 F Nov 16 Group Conferences M Nov. 19 Reflecting on Joining a Conversation Bring journal and final portfolio for Joining a Conversation Joining a Conversation Portfolio due

W Nov. 21 F Nov. 23 Thanksgiving break, no classes Unit #4 M Nov. 26 W Nov. 28 F Nov. 30 M Dec. 3 W Dec. 5 Reflecting on Writing Bring final version of revision portfolio Revision Portfolio due Revision and Style Daily Schedule TBA